1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a selector switch for a supervisory remote control system, by use of which a user can easily edit, revise or print out various control data of loads such as lighting apparatus to be controlled in the supervisory remote control system.
2. Disclosure of the Prior Art
In the past, a supervisory remote control system for remotely controlling various loads such as lighting apparatus and air conditioner has been utilized in large structures such as library, shopping mall and office building. For example, a portable setting device for the supervisory remote control system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Early Publication [kokai] No. 2000-358287. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the supervisory remote control system comprises a signal transmission unit 30 for supplying a control signal according to a time-division-multiplexing manner, a plurality of operation terminals 31 having switches SW for operating loads L such as lighting apparatus, a plurality of control terminals 32 such as relays, which are connected to the loads L, and a signal line Ls for connecting the transmission unit 30 to the operation and control terminals (31, 32). Each of the operation terminals 31 and the control terminals 32 has an individual address.
In this remote control system, when a set of a relation data including an information of one-to-one address correspondence between one of the control terminals 32 and one of the operation terminals 31 and a control data including control conditions of the load L are set in the transmission unit 30, the load connected to the control terminal can be controlled by operation of the address-corresponding operation terminal. In addition, when a set of the relation data including an information of address correspondence between a plurality of the control terminals 32 and one of the operation terminals 31 and control data including control conditions of the loads L are set in the transmission unit 30, the loads connected to the control terminals can be controlled in a batch manner by operation of the address-corresponding operation terminal.
By the way, in this supervisory remote control system, since each of the control terminals has one address (channel), 64 control terminals are available at the maximum. In addition, each of the control terminals has a relay circuit to which four loads can be connected at the maximum. As a result, a total number of the loads that can be controlled in this supervisory remote control system are 256. In the case of checking control conditions of the loads, e.g., ON/OFF state, it is needed for a user to go to the place that deployed of each of the operation terminals and check an indicator of the operation terminal.
To solve this inconvenience, as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16, the portable setting device 1P of this prior art has a hand-held type housing 10P. Various operation buttons K1˜K6 and a display 20P are arranged on a front panel of the housing. The housing mainly accommodates the display 20P, key matrix 120P (FIG. 15) used to set an address, the relation data and the control data, a data memory 110P, and a signal processor 130P for transferring the address to a required one of the operation and control terminals, and transferring the relation data and the control data stored in the data memory to the transmission unit. The signal processor 130P also comprises a data retrieving unit for retrieving at least one data set of the relation data and the control data corresponding to an address designated by the operation unit from the transmission unit, and listing a name given to the data set on the display.
By use of this setting device, it is possible to efficiently check or set the control conditions of all of loads controlled under the remote control system. However, when a total number of the loads to be controlled increases, and the control conditions of the loads are changed on a large scale for energy conservation measures or rearrangements, it is desired to edit or modify a lot of data of the control conditions by use of an external device such as personal computers, print out the edited or modified data, if necessary, or transfer new data of the control conditions of the loads prepared with the external device into the transmission unit without retyping the new data by use of the setting device. From these viewpoints, there is still plenty of room for improvement in the conventional setting device for the supervisory remote control system.